Ole Miss and Auburn are both showing signs of improvement as they prepare to meet Tuesday night in Oxford, Miss.
The Rebels (11-7, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) have won their last three games and have just one more conference loss than SEC co-leaders Texas A&M and Florida. The Tigers (11-7, 2-3) have won two of their last three.
“We have been playing better basketball since the Christmas break,” Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said. “There’s no denying that our guys are playing with a little bit more confidence as a unit.”
Even though Ole Miss lost at Oklahoma and at home against Arkansas to start conference play, Beard said he could see the improvement beginning. Then they won by two points at Georgia last Wednesday and by one at Mississippi State on Saturday.
“We’re just trying to get our guys to stay the course,” Beard said. “The scoreboard can’t always be the measure of how your team’s playing, but you’ve got to have some validation wins along the way.”
AJ Storr has averaged 23.3 points per game during the winning streak after averaging 11.3 over the first 15 games.
Auburn is coming off a 71-67 victory against visiting South Carolina on Saturday, but it is 0-3 on opponents’ home-courts.
The Tigers didn’t play their best against the Gamecocks, but they overcame poor outside shooting (2-of-19 on 3-pointers).
“We got a lot of good looks and didn’t convert,” coach Steven Pearl said, “but for us to be able to find a way to win that game, that’s a positive.”
They were able to win in part because Filip Jovi scored a career-high 23 to make up for leading scorer Keyshawn Hall being limited to eight points in 14 minutes because of foul trouble, though he did make four free throws in the final 31 seconds to seal the victory.
“Our first-half defense was as good as it’s been all year,” Pearl said after his team grabbed a 30-24 halftime lead. “To turn that team over 15 times was important. We didn’t let our offense affect our defense, and that’s something this team has been struggling with.”
